Introduction

This is an ideal chicken dish for an outdoor summer party. However, I favour cooking it in the oven because the marinade is apt to burn on a barbecue. I did it a couple of months ago at my holiday house by the water in Mollymook, NSW. I kept the heat low to avoid too much blackening but I needed to be at the barbie then, rather than chatting. Sumac is Turkey’s favourite spice. It’s a red berry with an astringent, lemony flavour, the fruit of a small bush. It’s the sort of dish that’s idea as part of a warm and cold buffet where people have a bit of everything including a rice pilaf.

Serves 4-6

Easy

Ingredients

1

whole chicken (about 2kg), jointed into 8 pieces

3 tbsp

olive oil

1 tbsp

sesame seeds

For the marinade:

2 tbsp

ground sumac

12g/2

large cloves garlic, crushed or grated

1/2 - 1 tsp

chilli flakes

1 tbsp

tomato paste

1 tbsp

pomegranate molasses

1 tsp

salt

Instructions

Mix all the marinade ingredients together, rub well into the chicken and leave for 1 hour.
Heat the oven to 200°C/ 6gas .Put the chicken in a roasting tin, drizzle with the olive oil and scatter the sesame seeds over. Roast in the oven for 30 minutes.

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Accompanying the major BBC Two series, Rick Stein: From Venice to Istanbul includes over 100 spectacular Eastern Mediterranean recipes discovered by Rick during his travels across Italy, Greece, Croatia, Albania and Turkey.